Onglets

14.11.08

job security, Paris, and weekends

The good news is our acting section head of FR pulled me aside yesterday and made a point of letting me know that my job is absolutely safe - which was nice of him - of course he hasn't seen my evals yet (this dreadful semester I fear will result in my worst student evals ever - and I wouldn't blame them a bit) !

Anyway so I'll have money coming in still... just less and less of it ? Again, enter the retail option... which, how big a drag would that be? doing both at the same time? I mean the one perk of retail was that there wasn't any homework... Hmph. If I had enough self-discipline I could go back to freelance translating but my procrastinatory tendencies there far outreach any which any of you have ever seen me resort to in mere academia. Dean got a nice dose of it; I think he'd confirm: Susan not/working on a translation isn't pretty. Once again I'm at a place where all I really need is for someone to sit around the house threatening to shoot me so I can get work done.

Too bad Sammers can't be trained to do all of his winter crazies only when I'm not working. (I'll probably blog soon about his having entered what seems to be a 4th kittenhood - the rearranged pix on the wall the other day were just the tip of the iceberg.) That would be great inducement to stick to a task. {Sam voice} You better get back to work, Missy, if you don't want all that stuff knocked off the table again!

And yes, in the immortal words of Billy Crystal and Debra Winger, who by the way had no chemistry whatsoever in that movie but since it took place partly in the City of Light all us French linguist nerds paid to see it anyway, (cue romantic accordion music) "We'll always have Paris" (or something like that). That is as long as enough students' parents aren't too scared by the economy to pay the program fees. Luckily since our program is pretty much self-supporting, the prices won't go up due to university cuts - only if we have too few students for the self-supporting part to kick in.

As for the rest, part of me is focusing on the fact that Barack is coming! Now, I saw the press conference, I know it will take time. I know improvements cannot be overnight but imagine how depressing it would be to have just got a paycut and all we could see on the horizon was Washington Business As Usual?! (sorry Republican friends and family)

At least (cue accordion again) "We'll always have weekends." Until I find myself bolstering the bank account with that retail job that is...

Wisdoms, or not

Walter: Oh, don't be ridiculous. You were abducted; of course you need crêpes.

--Fringe, 2:7 "Of Human Action"

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

Don't go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.

Don't go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the doorsill

where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.

Don't go back to sleep.

--Rumi, from Unseen Rain, (Trans. Coleman Barks)

Things just happen. What the hell.

--the philosopher Didactylos, Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

Eames: I tried Proust in college. I gave up after the first million pages.

Goren: It picks up after the second million pages.

--Law & Order: Criminal Intent, 10:4 "The Last Street in Manhattan"

Let food be thy medicine.

--Hippocrates

...There happens to be a lot about me that you don't know, Mr. Smarty Man.

--American Beauty

"...It makes me feel dangerous, like a spy, or a French person."

--Cougar Town

One of the oldest human needs is having someone to wonder where you are when you don't come home at night.

--Margaret Mead

Pourquoi tu m'appelles 'beauté' comme si ça se voyait pas?

--Camille, Janine II

I had such fuckin' hopes...

--McNulty, The Wire

I wish to say what I think and feel today, with the proviso that tomorrow perhaps I shall contradict it all.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Don't taunt the fear demon.

--Rupert Giles, Buffy, "Fear Itself"

The world is full of this kind of dumb smart-alec who doesn't understand anything.

--Richard Feynman

When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college -- that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared at me, incredulous, and said, "You mean they forget?"

--Howard Ikemoto

It's all fun and games til someone loses their row count.

--Anon. knitter

About suffering they were never wrong,

The old Masters: how well they understood

Its human position: how it takes place

While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along...

--W. H. Auden, Musée des Beaux Arts

I want some American food, dammit! I want French fries!

--Breaking Away

Another belief of mine: that everyone else my age is an adult, whereas I am merely in disguise.

--Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye

I did not achieve this position in life by having some snot-nose punk leave my cheese out in the wind.

I look around at this world you're so eager to be a part of, and all I see's six billion lunatics looking for the fastest ride out. Who's not crazy? Look around - everyone's drinkin', smokin', shootin' up, shootin' each other or just plain screwing their brains out because they don't want 'em anymore. I'm crazy? Honey, I'm the original one-eyed chicklet in the kingdom of the blind 'cause at least I admit the world makes me nuts.